Chapter 7: Past Events

Chen Ye walked through the sprawling campus, searching for anything suspicious.

After spending the past few days together, she was already convinced that Su Wanyue was a trustworthy witch.

She could guess that the other girl was probably also trying to gather intelligence in the shadows.

As the captain of the Jianghai City Hunter Association, she couldn’t afford to fall behind.

Well, humanity’s future ultimately had to be grasped by human hands.

After searching for a while without finding anything, Chen Ye found the nearest gazebo and sat down to rest.

She took out a complete aerial view of the school from her backpack and gently spread it on the stone table.

Even for an outsider like Chen Ye who knew nothing about architectural planning, one glance was enough to see that the overall layout of No. 1 Middle School was extremely unreasonable.

A large number of teaching buildings were concentrated near the main entrance, while the student dormitories were tucked away in a very remote corner.

Anyone with even a bit of common sense could tell that such a layout would make commuting extremely inconvenient for students.

The school’s auditorium, however, sat right at the center of the entire campus.

This layout was neither practical nor aesthetically pleasing; it reeked of unnaturalness and deliberate design.

Chen Ye stared intently at the aerial view in her hands, her brow furrowed, desperately trying to figure out the reason behind this abnormal layout.

The next second, as if she suddenly understood something, her eyes darkened.

“The source of a witch’s magical power!”

Although humans could now use extraordinary powers through resonance with Soul Weapons, magic could still only be used by witches.

When Chen Ye used to carry out missions on the front lines of the Hunter Association, she had witnessed many incidents where witches sacrificed lives by setting up magic arrays.

In their eyes, humans were no different from livestock.

And at this moment, Chen Ye finally figured it out.

The entire school was nothing more than a giant magic array, with all the irrational layout designed to continuously channel magical power toward the center of the array.

“It seems the entrance is in the auditorium.”

According to the information Chen Ye had gathered earlier.

The auditorium of No. 1 Middle School was converted from an abandoned church.

“A devil hiding under the nose of a god… how ironic.”

The interior of the No. 1 Middle School auditorium was more spacious than Chen Ye had imagined.

Since it was class time, the entire auditorium was empty.

But that just saved her a lot of trouble.

Chen Ye carefully searched the interior of the auditorium and soon discovered a secret passage.

Walking into the secret passage, it was very narrow, and Chen Ye could only feel the cold air seeping through the cracks in the rock walls.

Just then, a sudden change occurred.

“Roar—!”

Three black shadows shot out from the rock walls. 

They were pitch black, faceless, with only a pair of scarlet eyes.

“Erosion Beasts. Looks like I came to the right place.”

With that, a jet-black katana materialized in Chen Ye’s hand.

This blade had killed countless Erosion Beasts and witches.

Its name was—”Night Crow”!

The three black shadows charged at Chen Ye in unison.

Chen Ye reacted extremely quickly. 

With a “whoosh”, her “Night Crow” slid out of its sheath, the blade gleaming with silvery-white light.

With a flick of her wrist, she swung the katana toward the Erosion Beasts.

“Riiip—”

Where the blade light fell, the bodies of the three Erosion Beasts were split in two, instantly turning into wisps of black smoke that dissipated in the air.

But obviously, the number of Erosion Beasts was more than three. 

In the shadows all around, black figures were surging.

In the blink of an eye, several more Erosion Beasts emerged.

“Looks like this is going to be a protracted battle.”

“Night Flame!”

Using the katana wrapped in black flames, Chen Ye cut down the Erosion Beasts one after another as they attacked.

Chen Ye advanced while killing the Erosion Beasts.

After walking for about half an hour, the passage ahead suddenly widened.

This was a stone chamber.

And on the other side of the chamber stood a pure white door, beside which stood an expressionless middle-aged man.

He seemed completely oblivious to Chen Ye’s arrival, only staring at the door and speaking as if to himself.

“There’s a story.”

“A long, long time ago, back when Jianghai City had the highest number of Erosion Beast attacks in the entire country.”

“At that time, the people of Jianghai City lived under a shadow of despair every day. For them, death was actually the best relief.”

“The military, hunters… all forces were helpless against this city. Someone even suggested abandoning Jianghai City.”

“Just then, she appeared.”

“She personally eradicated all the Erosion Beasts and taught humans the methods to predict them.”

“People called her ‘Angel.'”

“But while humans accepted her gifts, they also tried to erase her existence.”

“They were uneasy, and unease turned into fear, making humans try to eliminate those who were different.”

“Just as humans have done throughout thousands of years of history. Just as humans fear the night.”

“Humans feared her. So, they killed her.”

“Humans themselves gave her the title of ‘Angel,’ yet in the end, they pinned on her that name which had struck fear into hearts since the Middle Ages—’Witch.'”

“This was the first encounter between humans and witches.”

“I don’t know about these things. What you’re saying is nothing but nonsense,” Chen Ye retorted in a deep voice.

But the middle-aged man ignored her and continued, “Humans didn’t even spare her corpse. In order to use her as a weapon against the Erosion Beasts.”

“They repeatedly conducted inhumane human experiments on her, trying to transplant the power of a witch into humans.”

“And girls in the prime of their youth turned out to be the best experimental subjects.”

“Li Jing was my finest child, the daughter I was most proud of in my life.”

“When they came for her, they just said it was the latest vaccine trial. But when I saw her again, all I saw was a cold corpse.”

“But in a sense, they did succeed.”

“Li Jing gained the power of a witch, but she could only exist in another world.”

“With her extremely unstable mental state, she used the witch’s power to annihilate all the military forces in this city.”

“How ironic, isn’t it? They were destroyed by the very power they craved. The so-called Witch Alliance you’ve been pursuing.”

“Yes, it’s as ridiculous as that.”

“They aren’t witches at all. They’re just a bunch of pitiful counterfeits.”

“There never was any god in this world.”

“If one did exist, it would have been strangled by pathetic humans long ago.”

“This world doesn’t deserve to be saved.”

“Where there is light, there must be shadows…” Chen Ye’s words were abruptly cut off.

“What do you know?! Where were you when I lost my only daughter?!” The middle-aged man completely lost control of his emotions.

Chen Ye finally remembered his name. 

He was the school principal, Li Zhengming.

And at this moment, he had already resolved to stand in the shadows and oppose this world.